Due to the cold start of the spring this first lapwing egg has been found very late in the season. In 1987 it happened even later, on March 25.

The egg can not be taken: that is only legal in Friesland. There, it is allowed to take 6307 lapwing eggs. In the rest of the Netherlands that is illegal.

From now until mid-June, some 5,000 volunteers of landscape management, bird watching and nature organizations in the country will jointly with farmers try to find nests and protect them. The aim is to lose as little nests as possible by agricultural activities.

Each year there are about 200,000 breeding pairs of lapwings in the Netherlands, 25 percent of the European population. The intensification of agriculture is causing the number to decline by 5 percent per year.